What I thought would be a small little project of about 5 or 6 hours has turned into something much more. I am doing a 1:400 scale type IX (Mirage kit with the brass detail kit added). I have about 20 hours into building the sub and now it's time for paint and weathering. This is my first attempt at a scale of this size. I was under the impression that a smaller model would take less time. I'm afraid I was wrong. The miniscule little details included in the brass detail kit are something I have never experienced before. Handling these parts has turned out to be far more time consuming that I had anticipated. Having said that, I have really enjoyed building this kit with the added details, now that I know what to expect. Mirage offers a very nice line of 1:400 scale U-boats and brass detail parts kits for them. I feel these models would make for a fantastic diarama as the scale would allow for either a compact little diarama, or a scene including other ships.

I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth in case anyone was considering a model in this scale.

I have to agree with you. I was dealing with a 1/400 HMS Upholder (a modified Mirage HMS Undine kit) for a loooong time. I spent most of the time trying to fix the kit's defects (i.e. low and wrong deck, prow, etc.) and glueing the tiny photoetched parts. After all that effort you just get a 12cm long submarine:( .

I don't know how many times I glued my fingers together with CA .... I've never seen parts so teeny tiny.

I like this scale though. I found that my type IX kit was well made and the brass photoetched parts added some nice detail. It has the appearance of a much larger model which again is why I feel this scale would make for a nice diarama.

Mylo,just to make your life a little bit harder but a nicer diorama:there are some super small plastic figures in 1/400 from Plastruck. They are nice but not very detailed. From the same brand you can get figures in many scales, 1/200, 1/125 (Revell Type VIIB!), etc.

Yes, that's real water. The photo shoot took place in my dog's bath tub with a light blue foam (It's actually a work out mat) back drop. The foam works well because it absorbs most of the light instead of reflecting it. The bathtub was white but I painted the inside a combination of black and green. I chalked some clouds onto the back drop with pastels. The lighting comes from two Halogen lamps that I have for my work shop. For the red lighting effect in the "dusk" photo, I simply spray painted a normal incandescent bulb with red paint and set up my hobby lamp. I swirled in some extra cloud effects with my pastels for that shot. The waves were created by setting a fan up and blowing air across the surface. I kept the model in place by litterally glueing an anchor to it that was a lead fishing weight attached to a piece of wire. When I built the model, I intended on putting it in water to photograph so I put styrofoam in it to make it bouyant as well as gluing a lead fishing weight to the keel to keep it upright. I obviously remove the keel weight and anchor when I'm done photographing to put the model back up on display. The whole "photo studio" was pretty low tech and was made from stuff I had laying around. These photos are not digitally "touched up". All in all, I'm happy with the results except for the fact that I was having trouble with getting the sub in focus due to how close the shot were being taken from (30cm / 12" or so).

I will be photographing my Type VIIb project in much the same way.

I have discovered that photographing the models is a whole other hobby in and of iteself.

I experimented with all kinds of camera angles and heights. The best shots were the low angle ones. The higher angle ones made the sub look like......a toy sub in a bath tub....hmmm...wierd. The dusk shot was the best higher angle one but the lighting had a different effect on the photo so it kind of worked.

I played around with "noise" and black & white. Yes....they made for some very cool "vintage WWII photos". I didn't post them because I didn't want to post photos that were digitally altered. I mean....anybody can do anything with photoshop. I was looking for more of an "old school" approach, reverting back to what can be achieved with camera angles and lighting. In hindsight, I should have taken a few shots with my old Canon 35mm, just to see how they would have turned out. Maybe I'll do that with the type VIIb I'm working on.